Tag Archives: magic

between which worlds?

Posted on by October 31, 2012
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zeph’s pop culture quiz #47 Between which worlds is the man the depicted hand belongs to travelling?     Just leave a comment with your educated guess—you can ask for additional hints, too. [Leaving a comment is easy; just click the ‘Leave a comment’ at the end of the post and fill in the form. If it’s the first time you post a comment, it will be held for moderation. But I am constantly checking, and once I’ve approved a comment, your next ones won’t be held, but published immediately by the system.] UPDATE and solution (31 October 2012): This … Continue reading →

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lennart green

Posted on by October 22, 2011
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  After having watched ↵Marco Tempest‘s performance at TED, I discovered, that ↑Lennart Green had performed there, too. It may well have been the same convention, twenty-odd years ago, at which I saw both, Marco Tempest and Lennart Green, live for the first time. No digital electronics or any other high-tech—except a laser beam—in his act. It’s clean and classic, absolute top-notch, highest astonishment and entertainment value, plus downright hilarious. Lennart Green is one of the world-class card magicians alive—my friend ↑Denis Behr, who belongs to the same league and on whom a post here is way overdue as well, … Continue reading →

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marco tempest

Posted on by October 14, 2012
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… get to the poetry faster  This is way overdue. It must have been in the late 1980s or early ’90s that for the first time I saw ↑Marco Tempest perform live. It was at one of those bigger magicians’ conventions in Germany where you can see and meet—if you’re a bit lucky—real top acts. Marco Tempest’s act was top, plus it was completely not off the peg. Brilliant stage magic lacking every standard element. Centerstage there was a big television set, Mr Tempest acted left, right, and behind that set and made flashy colored rubber balls move and jump … Continue reading →

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moore’s magic

Posted on by March 22, 2011
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On Wikipedia I found the following quote from the ↑Philip K. Dick of our times, ↑Alan Moore, author of e.g. ‘↑Watchmen,’ ‘↑V for Vendetta,’ ‘↑From Hell,’ and ‘↑The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,’ illustrating his quite secular vision of magic—the vision of a real magician: I believe that magic is art, and that art, whether that be music, writing, sculpture, or any other form, is literally magic. Art is, like magic, the science of manipulating symbols, words or images, to achieve changes in consciousness … Indeed to cast a spell is simply to spell, to manipulate words, to change people’s consciousness, … Continue reading →

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effect

Posted on by October 1, 2012
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  Great and strange ideas transcending experience often have less effect upon men and women than smaller, more tangible considerations. (Wells 1995 [1897]: 44)  ‘But did you—are you sure? Suppose a mirror for instance—hallucinations are so easily produced. I don’t know if you have ever seen a really good conjuror—’ (Wells 1995 [1897]: 48)  WELLS, HERBERT GEORGE. 1995 [1897]. The invisible man. London: Everyman. … Continue reading →

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charlie’s demons

Posted on by October 14, 2012
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Imagine a world where speaking or writing words can literally and directly make things happen, where getting one of those words wrong can wreak havoc, but where with the right spell you can summon immensely powerful agencies to work your will. Imagine further that this world is administered: there is an extensive division of labour, among the magicians themselves and between the magicians and those who coordinate their activity. It’s bureaucratic and also (therefore) chaotic, and it’s full of people at desks muttering curses and writing invocations, all beavering away at a small part of the big picture. The coordinators, … Continue reading →

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spontaneous paraphysical experience

Posted on by October 4, 2012
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the mystery of the broken bicycle tyre inflator  The uncanny breaks into everyday-life spontaneously and unpredictably. Today it hit me for the third time. The first two instances were “The riddle of the vanished filling station attendant” and “The amazing locked away broken flask” which I may relate at a later date. In both cases it took me quite some time to construct satisfying explanations for the events experienced. For today’s phenomenon I still completely lack an explanation.  This morning I rode by bicycle to the office. Early on my way I realized that there was way too less air … Continue reading →

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